Psalms: Tears, Psalm 126

MAY 23, 2023
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What does life feel like right now for you?

Goodness. Lately for me it feels like as soon as I get ahead, or feel like I get ahead of a task or parenting move, the rains come and wash away progress. I'm sure that's not how God sees it, but it sure is how I feel. How do I keep moving and trudging ahead when I'm just so, so tired? It's my last year of the 30's and when my husband asked what I wanted for my birthday, my response was, "For the girls to pick up after themselves for a whole week". He responded, "Well, I can't perform miracles." Isn't that the truth.

And certainly, though I do want my children to pick up after themselves each and every day, I know that even that would not make me fully happy or fully joyful. It also shouldn't be why I am fully frustrated and exhausted. It's not the worst thing. But there are really big, life-changing events or circumstances that shift our perspectives not only on joy but also on tears.

Pastor Nate said it this way, plant your tears. Does joy ever surprise you? C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series, also has a book called, "Surprised by Joy", where he shares much of what made him who he was through his upbringing. In it, he says this, “If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone". To know joy and the faithful sower of our tears, we must first know God. Knowing God and then knowing that God is in charge and that He is faithful, we lean in and look up to Him in our physical and mental exhaustion of life because I know that He is able to bring about joy and restore me.  

Where are you needing to plant your tears today so that you may experience JOY?

Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
    and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”The Lord has done great things for us;
    we are glad.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like streams in the Negeb!
Those who sow in tears
    shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him.